'Secret Life' falls flat even as scripted show

“The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” or “Secret Life,” is quite possibly the worst show I have ever seen.

Don’t get me wrong — “Jersey Shore” and the like also are horrible. But “Secret Life” isn’t touted as reality. Someone writes a script, the actors film it and the producers make the conscious decision to air it to the public.

My first issue with the show is ABC Family is creating a show about teenage pregnancy in a world where teenagers are having sex and speaking about it. All the while, the show is not intended to be controversial.

I understand the audience varies, and the network most likely has a younger demographic in mind, but maybe it should have decided to create a different show. If the show were more edgy, it would be believable.

This brings me to my second issue: The show is unrealistic. The characters are flawed in their own ways, but the extreme representations make them seem fake.

There’s Adrian, the girl portrayed as a slut, and Ricky, the guy who gets all the girls but never commits; they are common stereotypes, but not so much in high school. People grow up to develop those tendencies. These kids are supposed to be sophomores and juniors in high school.

One of the leading causes for the unrealistic feel is the horrible acting. The dialogue is long and attempts to be witty, but it usually fails.

I am fairly confident ABC Family wanted to make the cheapest show possible, so it hired the actors it could get away with paying the least amount of money. Now that the show is experiencing success, those actors probably get paid more and think their performances are flawless.

Brenda Hampton, the creator of “Secret Life,” was denied this show for more than 10 years. I would think ABC Family would take a hint. But apparently it didn’t see the show as the flop other networks saw it as. I guess it worked out for them because it’s wildly popular, but that doesn’t make it a good show.

ABC Family also has created a “Bring It On” spin-off, despite the bad sequels, which makes me wonder why they would make another one. There also was the made-for-TV “Mean Girls 2,” which was atrocious. Tina Fey and the cast of the original “Mean Girls” is what made the first movie awesome. Once you take out the good things from a movie, you can’t make a sequel.

ABC Family now has been trying its hand at original programming for about the past five years. I think it should stick with what it’s good at: buying reruns from other networks and airing those during the day and “Harry Potter” on the weekends.

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